TONIGHT’S GAMEThe Rangers will face-off against the Tampa Bay Lightning (7:00p.m. — TV: MSG Network; Radio: ESPN 98.7), as they continue a five-game road trip. The Blueshirts rank fifth in the Metropolitan Division standings, and 10th in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 18-19-2 (38 pts). The Rangers enter the contest having been defeated by the Washington Capitals, 3-2, on Friday to begin a five-game road trip. The Blueshirts are tied for fifth in the conference in ROW (16). The Lightning has posted a record of 23-11-4 (50 pts) to rank third in the Eastern Conference, and lost a five-game winning streak with a shootout loss to Montreal Saturday. Following the contest, the Rangers will return to action against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, Dec. 31, at BB&T Center (5:00 p.m.)

RANGERS vs. LIGHTNING:All-Time: 42-30-5-7 overall (24-13-2-4 at home; 18-17-3-3 on the road)2013-14: Tonight is the second of three meetings this season, and the second and final meeting at Tampa Bay Times Forum. New York is 0-1-0 (0-0-0 at home; 0-1-0 on the road), following a 5-0 loss on Nov. 25 at Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Rangers out-shot the Lightning, 37-25, while their penalty kill was 3-3 (100.0%) in the contest. Henrik Lundqvist (loss) stopped 18 of 22 shots through two periods, while Cam Talbot turned aside two of three shots in the third.Last Season: New York was 3-0-0 overall (2-0-0 mark at home; 1-0-0 mark on the road). The Rangers out-scored the Lightning, 12-4, in the series, including a 4-1 advantage in the first period and a 5-1 advantage in the third. The Blueshirts also out-shot the Lightning, 104-77, in three games, with a 46-17 shot advantage in the first period. Carl Hagelin led all skaters in scoring with four goals and six points in the series, while Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh each tallied a series-high three assists apiece. Henrik Lundqvist was 2-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and .956 Sv% in two games.
The Rangers have registered a point in 16 of their last 20 games against the Lightning (12-4-4 over the span), dating back to a 2-1 win at Tampa Bay on Oct. 4, 2008, and have won four of their last six meetings.
Seven of the last 11 meetings between the Rangers and Lightning have been decided by one goal, including five that required extra time and two that went into the shootout.
Henrik Lundqvist has started 30 of the Rangers’ last 32 contests against Tampa Bay, posting a record of 16-8-6 with a 2.17 GAA, .922 Sv% and two shutouts over the span.
New York is 10-9-0 on the road; Tampa Bay is 14-3-1 at home.
New York is 7-4-0 vs. Atlantic Division opponents; Tampa Bay is 5-5-1 vs. Metropolitan Division opponents.
New York lists three former Lightning on its roster: Dominic Moore (2010-11 – 2011-12); Benoit Pouliot (2012-13); Brad Richards (2000-01 – 2007-08).
Tampa Bay lists no former Rangers on its roster.
Lightning forward Tom Pyatt was drafted by the Rangers in 2005 (4th round/107th overall)

SPECIAL TEAMS:
The Rangers’ power play is 11-50 (22.0%) in the last 15 games, including five goals on the man advantage in the last five contests (5-20, 25.0% over the span) … Have tallied two or more power play goals in five games this season
Is tied for third in the league with three goals in 5-on-3 situations… The Blueshirts’ penalty kill has held opponents scoreless in 15 of the last 22 games (53-60, 88.3% over the span).Power Play: The Rangers were 1-3 (4:39) on Friday at Washington. New York is tied for 11th in the NHL overall (25-132, 18.9%), and ranks fourth on the road (14-60, 23.3%). The Rangers are 3-12 (5:58) in five-on-three situations (last – 12/23 vs. TOR), and 0-3 (3:55) when four-on-three (last – 12/20 vs. NYI). Shorthanded goals allowed (5): 10/8 at SJS (Vlasic); 10/24 at PHI (Read); 11/19 vs. BOS (Paille); 12/20 vs. NYI (Clutterbuck, PS); 12/20 vs. NYI (Grabner).Penalty Killing: The Blueshirts were 3-4 (7:46) and tallied a shorthanded goal on Friday at Washington. New York is tied for sixth in the NHL overall (103-121, 85.1%), and ranks seventh on the road (54-63, 85.7%). The Rangers are 2-4 (3:25) in three-on-five situations (last – 12/20 vs. NYI), and 4-6 (4:29) when three-on-four (last – 12/15 vs. CGY). Shorthanded goals for (2): 10/7 at LAK (McDonagh); 12/27 at WSH (Hagelin).Four-on-Four: New York yielded one goal in one four-on-four situation (2:00) on Friday at Washington, and are now -2 in 45 four-on-four situations (70:39) this season. Four-on-four goals for (4): 10/16 at WSH (J. Moore); 10/26 at DET (Brassard); 12/12 vs. CBJ (Girardi); 12/18 vs. PIT (Hagelin). Four-on-four goals allowed (6): 10/3 at PHX (Vrbata); 10/7 at LAK (Muzzin); 10/12 at STL (Backes); 12/8 vs. WSH (Grabovski, PS); 12/18 vs. PIT (Sutter); 12/27 at WSH (Fehr).

SHOOTING GALLERY: The Blueshirts have out-shot their opponent in seven of the last eight games (tied on shots in the eighth game), and hold a 270-211 shot advantage over their opponents during the stretch. New York has registered 40 or more shots five times this season, including in each of the last two games, and have posted 30 or more shots in nine of the last 12 games.

RINGMASTERS: The Rangers have won 381-722 faceoffs (52.8%) through 12 games in the month of December, including a season-high, 41 faceoff wins (41-64, 64%), in a 3-1 victory on Dec. 5 at Buffalo. Derek Stepan has won a team-high, 121 faceoffs over the span, while Dominic Moore (72-110, 65.5%), Brad Richards (69-132, 52.3%), Derick Brassard (51-100, 51.0%), and Brian Boyle (50-85, 58.8%) have each won better than 51% of their faceoffs taken during the month.

WESTERN SHOOTOUT: The Rangers have required the shootout in three of their last six games after being the only team in the NHL to not participate in a shootout in their first 33 contests of the season. The Blueshirts’ 4-3 shootout victory against the Calgary Flames on Dec. 15 at Madison Square Garden ended a stretch of 41 regular season games without a shootout, with their last shootout being on Apr. 10, 2013 vs. Toronto (3-2 SO win). New York tallied four shootout goals in seven rounds in their win against Calgary, tying a franchise record for most goals in a single shootout (3-2 SO win on Nov. 25, 2005 vs. Washington – 15 rounds; 3-2 SO win on Jan. 2, 2007 at New Jersey – eight rounds). Lundqvist is now 46-31 all-time in shootouts, ranking second in the NHL all-time in shootout wins (Ryan Miller, 47 shootout wins).

I think that AV has not motivated the troops for reasons I do not understand…his reign will be short-lived if this keeps up. Ulfie will become interim coach (as I noted early on) and the Rangers will be sellers at the deadline, unless their top players pick it up. I think that Gnash and Thoroughbred are hoping that rookie Kreider will make up for their mistakes while they coast, as the senior members of the line. Let the rookie pick up the slack!;>(( Put a vet on that line (like French Poodle) to wake them up.

I wouldn’t give a broken penny of 1944 that they will win tonight and call off Carp’s bet that Rangers will hold 3rd place in division at the end of season. However, it is just a wonderful game with the non-stop actions, intrigue and endless stories behind (imitating and mimicking real life)which generates baseless hopes and make it pleasure (and not) to watch and follow.

Professional hockey players do not need to be motivated. They do not achieve that level of success by relying on a coach for motivation. They all play for the same goals. The Stanley Cup and financial security.

However, the REASON for the lack of motivation can be multi-layered. Some reasons why:

1. poor player selection–talent, size, character, mix
2. lack of balance
3. sense by some players, especially finesse players, they will not
be protected. This is a HUGE problem here. Players like Step, Boyle,
Nash, Hank, Hags, Kreider, go on and on, that aren’t ‘gritty/tough’
are walking around scared. It’s too bad they don’t have any protection on this poorly put together team. The ‘mix’ of this team is all wrong.

Think that works to unmotivated players?

I’d hold that there was a point earlier in the season these guys felt better about themselves as a group. Didn’t realize how open to assaults from opponents they were. Then, after a few non-answered hits that caused injuries, team psyche dropped. What you see is what you get.

Conor Allen. He may not be the answer, and it is ironic that he is undrafted. BUT, at least he is 6’2″ and 210.

Enough of these midgets. He, by no means, a giant, is more likely to be a little harder to play against just by virtue of having some height (not much, but some) and some weight( perhaps he can put on 5-10 more).

Yet, when each member of your d is undersized and collectively so, what are you thinking? How about one Beuke? Two Beukes?

Talent is overrated. You have to believe! Believe in the talents gifted to you. Not someone else’s.

If you think talent is what wins, you don’t know the power of pozy energy!

Go look at old tapes of the first Ravens Super Bowl win and tell me of Trent Dilfer was the most talented QB in the league, let alone the game. Nope, he was not. He did, however have positive thoughts.

I wanna see cheers! This is vital! The season will turn tonight! We will get the chance to choose where it turns!

Papa, you know the quote from the classic movie The Red Shoes…”You cannot have it both ways. A [dancer] who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great [dancer]. Never.” Perhaps that’s Henrik’s downfall, and Coach “Boris Lermontov” Tortorella knew that…just (a)musing…could apply to hockey, as well, even though it was fictional representation of a tyrannical general manager of the ballet.

The day the rangers organization starts to head in the right direction is the day Sather is no longer employed by the rangers and the rangers have a new GM who will clean house and start to build a contender, not a pretender.

“After letting goaltender Eddie Giacomin go on waivers to the Detroit Red Wings, the Rangers followed that disaster by trading classy center Jean Ratelle and defenseman Brad Park along with defenseman Joe Zanussi to the archrival Boston Bruins for high-scoring Phil Esposito and defenseman Carol Vadnais.

The jaw-dropping trade turned out to be brilliant for the Bruins and a disaster for the Rangers. Ratelle and Park would have many great years for the Bruins, while Esposito never had the same success on Broadway that he did in Boston.

The Rangers not only strengthened the Bruins with the deal, they weakened their own on-ice performance”

That miller ridley trade made no sense at all. The rangers were flying and espo makes that trade for a retread and the rangers went downhill from there while the caps with ridley and miller became a very good team for years.

by the way, rangers getting Esposito wasn’t all that bad. The rangers did go to the stanely cup finals in 1979 beating the islanders on there way only to lose to the Canadiens. If Davidson didn’t hurt his knee in the Stanely cup finals against the canadiens the rangers might have won the cup in 1979.

I met Murdoch at Charlie O’s the night of the playoff game at the garden when Duguay had a hat trick. Real nice guy. Sat with him about 15-20 minutes…..felt bad as a bunch of jack wagons kept yelling out “spooooooon”. I thought the world of his play….

I think they would move him because of the Bozak contract. Just a guess. Kadri is awesome but their fans are all over him (not like that would change here). But yes, we would be talking about moving a Stepan or brassard amd Girardi. A large package

The 95-96 Rangers were a dangerous, tough hockey team bolstered by Messier and Pay Verbeek both gunning for 50 goal seasons (injuries prevented it) and looking every bit like a Stanley Cup contender with Mike Richter looking even better than he did in ’94.

So, they trade a blue chip defenseman and their #2 center to bring in a completely shot Jari Kurri, a useless Marty McSorley and bruiser Shane Churla (who ended up being the best part of the trade for the Rangers)

Those who remember that playoff year remember the stunning comeback against Montreal after dropping the first two at home and then watching as the Penguins completely and totally annihilated the Rangers with the blueshirts attempting to goon it up while the Pens (with Nedved and Zubov) skated circles around us.

Colin Campbell’s infamous quote after that series: “Good luck to anyone who tries to stop Mario and Jagr” and then the Florida Panthers went and did just that.

We had a good, talented team that year and it was blown up for no good reason other than to bring in the few Oilers players who hadn’t yet worn a Rangers jersey. You had Colin Campbell who, I am convinced, had a bias against Russian/European players.

I just remember at the time thinking “WHY?” when the trade was made. And it turned out to be a disaster.

Either way, all this crap started piling up, which soon meant Messier out, then Campbell out, then Muckler in, then Smith out, then Checketts out … to the wonderful stewardship of the organization you have today.

Carp, I was gonna ask for confirmation on that. I believe at the time the word was that Messier had alot to do with it.

Just didn’t make sense to me at the time and still doesn’t.

One thing I also remember, maybe you can confirm perhaps, is that when Sergei Nemchinov and Brian Noonan were traded in ’97 to Vancouver for Esa Tikkanen and Russ Courtnall…was Messier upset with that move?

I thought I remember reading somewhere that Messier held Nemchinov in very high regard and didn’t approve of him being traded.

As for me, Sergei Nemchinov remains one of my all-time fave Rangers. Guy just came to play every night.

John Muckler – Now THAT was possibly the single worst head coach the Rangers have ever had.

My “fondest” memory as a Rangers fan that year was walking around MSG during the 6-0 loss to Detroit (after they had beaten us 8-2 in Detroit the game prior) somewhere around the second period and the place was half empty with nothing but unbridled hatred at the team on the ice, the coach and the GM.

Sadly, I don’t think Rangers fans at MSG could ever mount that kind of vitriol to call for a coach or GM’s head anymore. The passion, at least at MSG, has been highly diluted over the last several years. Apathy reigns supreme on most nights

The only time he didn’t cry, I lost a $10 bet … the first game after 9/11 when they honored the first responders and he wore the fireman’s hat, he didn’t cry. I would have bet a lot more. Glad I didn’t.

Not only was he a bad coach, but Muckler derailed the whole “rebuilding” thing, ruined Malhotra, did that stupid, stupid, ill-conceived Leetch-wing-lock thing, got Smith (and himself) fired, and that led to you-know-who.

Titanic was the ultimate Greek tragedy. Had any one of twenty or so things not happened, the ship doesn’t sink and 1500 people don’t die. Two weeks after the sinking, a rescue boat went to the North Atlantic to retrieve bodies still floating in the water….there bobbed John Jacob Astor, bobbing up and down, $2000 cash in his pockets and a brilliant gold watch on his wrist…

Think about that move, Eddie.
1) The Rangers had one line that could score, the Czechmates. 2) Leetch was by far BY FAR their best player. 3) Since Florida would put out Bure whenever the Czechs were on the ice, that meant Hlavac had to get off so Leetch could get on, and that their only offensive threat had to defend instead, minus their best defenseman, because he was up front. To that end, the Rangers were inviting a shutout, which they got. 4) Hlavac jumped off late one time and Bure scored the GWG before Leetch could get on. 5) They hatched this nincompoop plan without a practice (implemented it at the morning skate), and in a road game, in which Florida had the last change. 6) Muckler crowed that he thought it worked perfectly, yet a week later, at the Garden, with a chance to practice it the day before and with the last change, Muckler declined to try it again against Bure.

I remember reading Carp’s book about the abomination that was the ’99-’00 Rangers (Sather’s first year as GM) and mentioning several of the major problems Muckler caused as coach.

Told flat out “Lose, we don’t care. But let the kids play and let them grow.” He ignored this edict.

Carp also mentioned he told the team he would pay for a meal one night and then promptly charged the organization.

And at some point, I forget if it was pre-season or during the season, Muckler’s only concern was getting up to Edmonton for some nostalgia reunions.

Carp, I recommend your book HIGHLY to anyone who wants a clue into just why the New York Rangers under Glen Sather have been so bad for so long. In Glen Sather, we have an egomaniac who still believes in his own myth-making. Despite the fact he earned it on the backs of the most talented group of players the league has ever seen.

Sather’s ego, his non-hockey sense (signed Vladimir Malakhov to a 4 year contract and immediately called him the Rangers’ best defenseman. With BRIAN LEETCH on the team) and his belief that everyone around him is less intelligent than him (being asleep at the wheel when the Caps got their hands on Jaromir Jagr for nothing)

I can’t help but believe, in some timey wimey wibbly wobbly way, that Glen Sather is the price we have to pay for that Stanley Cup in 1994. To set the universe right again, we are made to suffer.

I will tell you where the lack of motivation on the part of so many athletes – across the entire professional sports spectrum comes from… It comes from LONG TERM CONTRACTS, which have destroyed the basic incentives athletes used to have to be in top mental and physical shape at all times.

There was a time (before parasitic agents and coercive unions took over the planet) when all professional athletes were under contract from year-to-year, and were always fighting to keep their job, from game-to-game, and certainly, in spring training as regards baseball; and in the summer football and fall hockey and basketball camps established players were always competing with ambitious rookies and newcomers acquired by trade, to keep their tenuous career, in so many cases, going.

Further exacerbating the malaise of professional athletes today are “guaranteed contracts,” with lavish buy-out and no-trade clauses. With continual drubbings from the courts and the unions and the agents who just continue to “pile on” the owners of major sports franchises – using the leverage of punitive court rulings and strikes and “work stoppages,” the owners caved long ago – because they can afford to, so lucrative are their TV deals, advertising revenue, concession revenue usury, season ticket plans, and “luxury box” windfalls.

How do you motivate a multi-millionaire professional athlete who is already financially secure for life, to sacrifice his body beyond the minimum required to hold his job? I don’t know, but then again, I am not Brad Richards or Andrew Bynum, two of the most egregious of the professional athlete shirkers of the day, so I cannot even conjecture what is going through their heads that they think they owe next to nothing to their team and their supportive fans, in return for all they have been generously given.

To me all this spoiled, bratty, self-centered pouting and lassitude on the part of so many of today’s athletes suggests breach of trust and borderline thievery.

If John Jacob Astor had known death would come to him in the water via a smokestack from the Titanic falling on his head, I dare say he would have bought the entire White Star Line, right then and there.

Too bad we mortals do not have a crystal ball. I mean, when Mr. Astor bought the first class tickets for his lady friend and her airedale terrier, you just know he wasn’t thinking about winding up dead in “the drink.” He was probably thinking about playing poker and sipping cognac with is wealthy cohorts, more than anything else. Sometimes the day can get away from you, in unexpected ways.

You know what is the killer about the Rick Middleton trade disaster? It’s unbelievable, Middleton was 23 and Ken Hodge was 33, at the time! I have said it before but it bears repeating, because so many G.M.’s don’t get it – athletes are ~depreciating assets.~ Like your manufactured for obsolescence five-year old General Motors car that is depreciating from wear and tear, athletes, too, suffer break-downs as they age.

So I have to agree, obtaining the 30+ goals the team got from Ken Hodge, in exchange for the 300+ goals Boston got from Rick Middleton is as bad as it gets. And without Middleton in 1979, the Rangers still made a really fine, hot run at the Cup. With Middleton in 1979, well, now that would have been a really fun Stanley Cup Finals down to the seventh game wire to savor.

Carp 2 questions- 1- why did Messier have a problem with Ferraro? I’ll never forget that trade. Wretched horrible sickening. I liked Ferraro and what he did here that season. He wasn’t making Unlucky Luc any better but he was rather productive..

and 2- why do you think Robitaille was so awful outside of his western conf career? Sorry but I could talk about all those mid 90s horror trades for hours on end.

Does anybody remember the Zubov fight? He fought some Dave Manson type of player and I thought about closing my eyes. Zubov took 2 or 3 shots that I thought would tear his head off, then Zubov “Flipped the switch” and went of to knock the guy down/out. Who did he fight? Peluso? Tinordi?

*vibin*, wick. Simon was a pretty tough Ranger while being productive. would fit into that “playable toughness” category you mentioned the other day. Barnaby not so much but boy was he ever an Islander killer while wearing blue